Columbia Township is a

civil township A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a County (United States), county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England town, Ne ...

of Van Buren County in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The population was 2,588 at the 2010 census, down to 2,546 at the 2020 census. Columbia Township is a largely rural area with many farms. It is also home to several lakes with a significant percentage of the population living on them, frequently retirees from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Many summer lake cottages are owned by families with roots in the Chicago area.

Communities

There are three settlements in the township, none of them large. * Breedsville is the only incorporated village, located in the southwest part of the township. *Columbia was an unincorporated community platted in 1870. *Grand Junction unincorporated, although it has a larger business district than Breedsville, is located in the northwest part of the township. It is so named because it is located at the junction of two railroad lines, though only one now survives. It was first settled by David Young in the fall of 1869 and

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted on December 8, 1871 *Berlamont is an unincorporated crossroads community that straddles the eastern township boundary with Bloomingdale Township. It was formerly known as "Bear Lake Mills" and was a station on the now-defunct railroad between Bloomingdale and Grand Junction. It was centered around a sawmill built in 1857 by H. Anderson and Amos S. Brown. The Kal-Haven Trail State Park goes through Columbia Township in an east–west direction, passing through both Berlamont and Grand Junction. The midpoint of the Kal-Haven trail is located in Bloomingdale.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the township has a total area of , of which is land and (3.81%) is water.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 2,714 people, 981 households, and 722 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 1,433 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 88.91%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 3.06%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.03% Native American, 0.15% Asian, 4.64% from other races, and 2.21% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 7.55% of the population. There were 981 households, out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.3% were non-families. 21.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.14. In the township the population was spread out, with 27.9% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.8 males. The median income for a household in the township was $34,389, and the median income for a family was $39,583. Males had a median income of $30,712 versus $24,598 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the township was $15,015. About 10.2% of families and 18.0% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 24.3% of those under age 18 and 14.7% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

Daniel Sidney Warner Daniel Sidney Warner (June 25, 1842 – December 12, 1895) was an American church reformer and one of the founders of the Church of God (Anderson) and other similar church groups in the holiness movement. He called for evangelism, the preac ...

References

Notes

Sources

* * {{authority control Townships in Van Buren County, Michigan Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan area Townships in Michigan